Released for Publication: The Shin Bet intelligence agency and Israel Police have thwarted a plan by the Hamas terrorist organization to attack a bus carrying police officers near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The plot was uncovered during a month-long investigation of 21-year-old Omar Abedin, a resident of a neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem. He had allegedly participated in Hamas-linked activities with an Islamist student group at Birzeit University.
Abedin, who was suspected of terrorism-related activities, was communicating on social media with a terrorist operative in Lebanon, according to a joint statement released Sunday by the Shin Bet and Israel Police.
The suspect was asked by his Lebanese handler to carry out a shooting or bombing attack and was told he would receive money for the operation from local terrorists in the Palestinian Authority, according to the statement.
Abedin, who agreed to carry out the attack, allegedly planned to open fire at a bus carrying police officers near the Temple Mount.
The suspect was set to be arraigned in a Jerusalem court sometime on Sunday.
